April 3, 2022 – John’s Writings – From Weeping to Worship

 From Weeping to Worship

Ezra 10:1-11 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. They too wept bitterly. ² Then Shekaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel. ³ Now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law. ⁴ Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.”

⁵ So Ezra rose up and put the leading priests and Levites and all Israel under oath to do what had been suggested. And they took the oath. ⁶ Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he was there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.

⁷ A proclamation was then issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem for all the exiles to assemble in Jerusalem. ⁸ Anyone who failed to appear within three days would forfeit all his property, in accordance with the decision of the officials and elders, and would himself be expelled from the assembly of the exiles.

⁹ Within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem. And on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people were sitting in the square before the house of God, greatly distressed by the occasion and because of the rain. ¹⁰ Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful; you have married foreign women, adding to Israel’s guilt. ¹¹ Now honor the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives.”

How did those who gathered around Ezra as he was “praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down” respond (verse 1)?

What is there “in spite of” the unfaithfulness displayed by the marrying of foreign women (verse 2)?

In your opinion, why would making “a covenant before our God” be an appropriate response to the situation (verse 3)?

Why was Ezra to “take courage and do it” (verse 4)?

What did Ezra put “the leading priests and Levites and all Israel” under (verse 5)?

Why did Ezra continue to eat no food and drink no water (verse 6)?

Who was the proclamation too (verse 7)?

What would happen to those who did not appear “within three days” (verse 8)?

Why were the people “greatly distressed” (verse 9)?

How had they added “to Israel’s guilt” (verse 10)?

How were the people to “honor the Lord . . . and do his will” (verse 11)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about how those who believe in Jesus are different from those in the world?

John 4:13-26 - New International Version (NIV)

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Who will “be thirsty again” (verse 13)?

What will the water that Jesus gives become (verse 14)?

Why did the woman want “this water” (verse 15)?

In your opinion, why would Jesus say “go, call your husband and come back” (verse 16)?

What did Jesus say when the woman said “I have no husband” (verses 17 and 18)?

What could the woman see about Jesus (verse 19)?

In your opinion, is the woman’s response to Jesus a question, a plea, or an attempt to start an argument (verse 20)?

What time is coming (verse 21)?

Who is salvation from (verse 22)?

How will “true worshipers” worship the Father (verse 23)?

Who is “spirit” (verse 24)?

According to the woman, what will the Messiah do “when he comes” (verse 25)?

Who does Jesus claim to be (verses 25 and 26)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about how those who believe in Jesus are different from those in the world?

In your opinion, why does Jesus invite the Samaritan woman, who would have been one of the people that Ezra was instructing the Israelites to separate themselves from in Ezra 10:1-11, to become a part of something that is neither of Israel nor Samaria?   

1 John 2:26-29 – New International Version (NIV)

²⁶ I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. ²⁷ As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

²⁸ And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

Who is John “writing these things” about (verse 26)?

What remains in the ones John is writing to (verse 27)?

Why do they “not need anyone to teach you” (verse 27)?

How are they to respond to the real anointing they had received (verse 27)?

How can the “dear children” be “confident and unashamed before him at his coming” (verse 28)?

What do we know if we “know that he is righteous” (verse 29)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about how those who believe in Jesus are different from those in the world?

In your opinion, how, though they are similar, is the decision that the people of Israel had to make concerning mingling with or separating from the people around them in Ezra 10:1-11 different from the decision that the “dear children” of 1 John 2:26-29 had to make about remaining in the anointing they had received or going astray? 

In your opinion, how does John 4:13-26 help us understand the anointing of 1 John 2:26-29?

Revelation 2:18-29 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁸ “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. ¹⁹ I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

²⁰ Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹ I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²² So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³ I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

²⁴ Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, ²⁵ except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

²⁶ To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— ²⁷ that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸ I will also give that one the morning star. ²⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Who is John to write to (verse 18)?

Who are the words that John is to write from (verse 18)?

What does Jesus know (verse 19)?

What does Jesus have against them (verse 20)?

What does Jezebel call herself (verse 20)?

How does Jezebel mislead Jesus’s servants (verse 20)?

What had Jesus given Jezebel (verse 21)?

How can those who committed “adultery with her” avoid suffering intensely (verse 22)?

How will “each of you” be repaid (verse 23)?

Who will not have “any other burden” imposed (verse 24)?

In your opinion, what does it mean to “hold on to what you have until I come” (verse 25)?

How will the “one who is victorious” rule over the nations (verses 26 and 27)?

What else will the victorious receive (verse 28)?

Who is to hear (verse 29)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about how those who believe in Jesus are different from those in the world?

In your opinion, how does the “hope for Israel” in Ezra 10:1-11 help us understand what those who had committed adultery with Jezebel in Revelation 2:18-29 must do? 

In your opinion, how does Jesus’s discussion with the angel of the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2:18-29 help us understand what Jesus meant when He told the Samaritan women that a time was coming when “true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth” in John 4:13-26?

In your opinion, how does John’s instruction in 1 John 2:26-29 to “remain in him” help those who are exposed to the teachings of Jezebel and “Satan’s so-called deep secrets” to win the victory of Revelation 2:18-29? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezra, John, 1 John and Revelation teach all about how weeping is transformed to hope?

In your opinion, how are hope and anointing threatened by Jezebel’s teaching and Satan’s secrets?

In your opinion, what is crucial to success in remaining or holding on?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

March 27, 2022 – John’s Writings – Repenting and Believing

  

Repenting and Believing

Ezra 9:1-15 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. ² They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”

³ When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. ⁴ Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.

⁵ Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God ⁶ and prayed:

“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. ⁷ From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.

⁸ “But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage. ⁹ Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁰ “But now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken the commands ¹¹ you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other. ¹² Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance.’

¹³ “What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this. ¹⁴ Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? ¹⁵ Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.”

Who had not “kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices” (verse 1)?

Who “led the way in this unfaithfulness” (verse 2)?

How long did Ezra sit “there appalled” (verses 3 and 4)?

What did Ezra do from his knees with his “hands spread out to the Lord” (verses 5 and 6)?

How had the Lord been gracious to the people whose guilt was great (verses 7 and 8)?

What were the people to do with the “new life” they had been granted (verse 9)?

How have the people treated the commands (verse 10)?

Why were the Hebrew people not to marry with the people of the land, or even “seek a treaty of friendship with them” (verse 12)?

What has God done less of than the Hebrew people deserved (verse 13)?

Why can no one stand in the presence of God (verse 15)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about sin and salvation?

John 3:10-21 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹ Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹² I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Who does not “understand these things” (verse 10)?

What do we testify to (verse 11)?

Who does not accept Jesus’s testimony (verse 11)?

In your opinion, why would “heavenly things” be harder to understand than “earthly things” (verse 12)?

Who has gone “into heaven” (verse 13)?

How must the “Son of Man” be lifted up (verse 14)?

Who “may have eternal life in him” (verse 15)?

Why did God give “his one and only Son” (verse 16)?

Why did God not “send his Son into the world” (verse 17)?

Why did God “send his Son into the world” (verse 17)?

Who “stands condemned” (verse 18)?

Why do people love “darkness instead of light” (verse 19)?

Why do people who do evil not come into the light (verse 20)?

Who comes into the light (verse 21)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about sin and salvation?

In your opinion, what does Ezra understand about his and the people of Israel’s standing before God in Ezra 9:1-15 that Nicodemus, Israel’s teacher, in John 3:10-21 apparently does not understand?   

1 John 2:20-25 – New International Version (NIV)

²⁰ But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. ²¹ I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. ²² Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. ²³ No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

²⁴ As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is what he promised us—eternal life.

What do the people John is writing to have (verse 20)?

What do they know (verse 20)?

Why does John write them (verse 21)?

What cannot come from the truth (verse 21)?

“Who is the liar” (verse 22)?

What does “the antichrist” do (verse 22)?

Who has the Father (verse 23)?

What happens to those who have what they heard from the beginning remaining in them (verse 24)?

What is “what he promised us” (verse 25)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about sin and salvation?

In your opinion, how are the people that John is writing in 1 John 2:20-25 similar to the people of Israel in Ezra 9:1-15 as they lived among “the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites”? 

In your opinion, how does John 3:10-21 help us understand what 1 John 2:20-25 says that those who have “an anointing from the Holy One” have “heard from the beginning”?

Revelation 2:12-17 – New International Version (NIV)

¹² “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:

These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. ¹³ I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.

¹⁴ Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. ¹⁵ Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶ Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

¹⁷ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.

Who is John to write to (verse 12)?

Who are the words that John is to write from (verse 12)?

Where do they live (verse 13)?

What happened to “Antipas, my faithful witness” (verse 13)?

Who “taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin”” (verse 14)?

What will happen if they don’t repent (verse 16)?

Who will receive “some of the hidden manna” (verse 17)?

What will be written on the white stone that the victorious will receive (verse 17)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does the warning of Jesus to the angel of the church of Pergamum teach us about the similarity of Christians and non-Christians?  What does it teach us about the differences between Christians and non-Christians?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about sin and salvation?

In your opinion, how does the fact that what the people of Israel did in Ezra 9:1-15 is similar to what “some among you” hold to in Revelation 2:12-17 demonstrate a consistent human weakness?  How do the actions of Ezra and the words of Jesus help us understand how to respond to that weakness? 

In your opinion, how does the hope that Jesus promised in John 3:10-21 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” also shine through in His message to the church in Pergamum in Revelation 2:12-17?

In your opinion, how are those who “hold to the teaching of Balaam” in Revelation 2:12-17 and those who deny “the Father and the Son” in 1 John 2:20-25 similar? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezra, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about the difference between knowing about sin and repenting from sin?

In your opinion, how is believing in Jesus different from repenting from sin?

  

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

March 20, 2022 – John’s Writings – Opposition, Inside and Out

Opposition, Inside and Out

Ezra 4:1-7 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, ² they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.”

³ But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.”

⁴ Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. ⁵ They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.

⁶ At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, they lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

⁷ And in the days of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of his associates wrote a letter to Artaxerxes. The letter was written in Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language.

What did the enemies of Judah and Benjamin hear (verse 1)?

Who did the enemies come to (verse 2)?

What did the enemies want to do (verse 2)?

How did “Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel” answer the enemies (verse 3)?

What did the peoples around them “set out to” do (verse 4)?

How did the try to discourage them and make them afraid (verse 5)?

When did they lodge “an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem” (verse 6)?

How was the letter to Artaxerxes written (verse 7)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how does this passage show the world’s opposition to God’s people?

John 2:13-25 - New International Version (NIV)

¹³ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

¹⁸ The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

²⁰ They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

²³ Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. ²⁴ But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. ²⁵ He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.

When did Jesus go “up to Jerusalem” (verse 13)?

What were people doing in the temple courts (verse 14)?

How did Jesus respond to what people were doing (verses 15 and 16)?

What did His disciples remember (verse 17)?

Who ask “what sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this” (verse 18)?

How did Jesus answer them (verse 19)?

In your opinion, why did the Jews not understand what Jesus meant (verse 20)?

What had Jesus been talking about (verse 21)?

When did the disciples recall and believe “the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken” (verse 22)?

What did “many people” do while Jesus was in Jerusalem (verse 23)?

Why would Jesus not “entrust himself to them” (verse 24)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how does this passage show the world’s opposition to God’s people?

1 John 2:15-19 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. ¹⁶ For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

¹⁸ Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

What are Christians not to love (verse 15)?

When is “love for the Father” not in someone (verse 15)?

Where does “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” come from (verse 16)?

Who lives forever (verse 17)?

Who has come (verse 18)?

How do we know it is the last hour (verse 18)?

Where did the antichrists not belong (verse 19)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how does this passage show the world’s opposition to God’s people?

Revelation 2:8-11 – New International Version (NIV)

⁸ “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. ⁹ I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰ Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.

¹¹ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.

Who is John to write to (verse 8)?

Who are the words that John is to write from (verse 8)?

What is known (verse 9)?

Who is rich (verse 9)?

Who are those slanderers “who say they are Jews” (verse 9)?

What are they not to be afraid of (verse 10)?

Who will receive “life as your victor’s crown” (verse 10)?

Who is to hear (verse 11)?

Who will “not be hurt at all by the second death” (verse 11)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how does this passage show the world’s opposition to God’s people?

In your opinion, how does the opposition of “the peoples around them” to the people rebuilding the temple in Ezra 4:1-8 and the resistance of the Jews to Jesus in John 2:13-25 show ways that God’s work can be impeded?   

In your opinion, how is the conflict between the world and the kingdom of God displayed in both Ezra 4:1-8 and in 1 John 2:15-19? 

In your opinion, how do the people around Jerusalem and their opposition to the building of the temple in Ezra 4:1-8 compare to those who are a “synagogue of Satan” slandering the church of Smyrna in Revelation 2:8-11 in attitude and in method?

In your opinion, how does the zeal that Jesus had in the temple in John 2:13-25 help us understand how to deal the “everything in the world” that John warns us of in 1 John 2:15-19? 

In your opinion, what is the difference between those who “believed in his name” but who Jesus would not entrust himself to in John 2:13-25 and the “one who is victorious” in Revelation 2:8-11?

In your opinion, how are the antichrists that John warns of in 1 John 2:15-19 related to those “who say they are Jews” in Revelation 2:8-11? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezra, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about the source of opposition to God’s people and their work?

In your opinion, how should Christians respond to opposition from the outside?

In your opinion, how should Christians respond to opposition from the inside?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)